Author's Note:

Well holy shit it has been a while. I have been SWAMPED with school: Senior classes, a bullshit lab, exec of two organizations and President of one of them, work, interfaces for the microsat I'm working on and a bunch of other stuff. But you didn't come here to hear me bitch and moan you came for the story so after a really long wait, I give you Chapter 21!

Prospectively, I should have Chapter 22 up during Thanksgiving Break but as of now I really don't have time to even think about it until then so after this last wait I think you can handle 2 weeks until the next update.

Read Review and Enjoy!

Still a Need for Heroes

Chapter 21: The Friend of My Enemy

"Stand back! Everyone get back!" Shouts were coming from all around. The only audible ones set apart from the endless rambling of the crowd of enraged citizens were those being voiced over loud speakers. It had been like this for weeks.

Hundreds of echidnas formed a sea of protestors and demonstrators outside the side of the Senate Chambers that was not devastated by the bombing a few weeks before. The crowds ended at a neat barricade of cement medians and echidnas garbed in their police gear, stationed at specific points along the area.

At some point an echidna stood up on a crate with a loud speaker of his own and began shouting out to the crowd. "Brothers! Our leaders have lied to us! They did nothing as they received the same threats as the Kingdom of Acorn regarding this 'Research Affair!'" The Mobian continued to shout – he either had no idea U.F. received the same warnings or left them out for his own personal justifications. "And now, 'We are friends with the enemy and soon that will be prevalent.' My fellow echidna: that has been made prevalent already. Those Overlander bastards have crept in the shadows for years, hiding behind lies and secrets and now they have attacked our homeland!" The crowd responded with raucous jeers of rage-filled approval. "They have killed our children!" The crowd shouted again. "They have left a scar in our precious Albion!" Again, the listeners to the man's words chanted in support. "And they are waging war as we speak!" One final praised erupted from the people. "The ERA is fore fronting the fight against the treacherous Overlanders! If our nation's leaders will not see their deceit, we will show it to the world with our own hands!"

Inside the Senate Chambers the leaders of the fragile nation, that has nearly erupted in civil war over their 'controversial' alliance with the United Federation and G.U.N., discuss possible forms of action. Saren-ca has addressed the nation multiple times stating that the attacks were caused by Hook and that U.F. is in the same, if not greater, peril as their nation. But the disregarding of the first note and other threats by the nation's officials have turned a people already filled with paranoia about their endangered and recuperating species, even more distrustful about their leaders.

The ERA, or Echidna Retaliation Army, has sprouted strong influence over much of the people and have made such claims that they have taken charge of the Echidna Nation's efforts to battle the threats of the Research Affair. They have even made open claims that they plan to attack the United Federation in retaliation of the bombing at Bogside Market. They have been entirely underground and have reported strongholds in both Albion and Angel Island. Remington has had his hands full trying to manage the rioting people and the ERA at the same time. Wynmacher has also been quite busy now that, as he predicted, the job of Internal Affairs expanded greatly overnight.

Knuckles, The Guardian, and The Chaotix have been working frivolously on Angel Island in juncture with the nation's leaders to maintain peace and to settle unrest. Often they would be charged with investigative or operative tasks to help weed out small factions or ordeals with the ERA on the floating island. It was not a peculiar event when Knuckles got phoned up by the head of the entire Echidna Nation as was the instance today.

"Matriarch." Knuckles answered as his greeting on the large telescreen in Haven. "It's never a good thing to hear your voice over the phone now-a-days is it?" He asked rhetorically.

"No it's not but seeing as you are the Guardian–"

"Protecting my people is my duty. What do you need?"

"We've received intel that a faction of the ERA stationed on Angel Island has been receiving illicit weapons. And seeing as their radicalism toward our current situation with U.F. has taken frightening turns, we need you and The Chaotix to investigate."

The large screen Knuckles was looking at had its original image retract and a new image replaced it of security footage. "This was reported to Remington two days ago. It's in the old abandoned Happyland Amusement Park." As Saren-ca continued to explain, Knuckled watched in at the security footage. For a good chunk of the video it just showed three echidnas conversing in a huddle off in the distance. He could tell they were there for a long time as the timer on the footage revealed the recording was being sped up until suddenly it resumed normal synchronization. The three echidnas broke apart and two moved off behind an old torn tent. Shortly after, they panned back into view rolling large crates across the view of the camera with the words 'Ammunition' barely readable in the low quality recording. "As you can see this raises great alarm especially with most recent threats."

"So you need us to go in and whoop up on some defiant self-righteous vigilantes? I think we can manage." The Guardian said with a smug grin, crossing his arms across his chest.

"I would prefer you to go in discrete, for your own safety. We do not know how much the ERA has recruited and you could be severely outnumbered." The Matriarch's image appeared as a live feed back on the screen in front of Knuckles.

"Ma'am, we have Vector on our team. I highly doubt discreteness is one of our luxuries." He toyed.

"Well regardless, this could turn ugly. We just need to you to go in, find the weapons cache and sabotage their supply to render it unusable. We do not have the forces able to wipe out the ERA so the best we can do is just hold them back until these Research Affairs comes to an end."

"Don't worry. We'll get the job done." He said, reaching out and clicking a lever on the computer pad in front of him. Just like his greetings, he wasn't real big on formal and sincere salutations. "Alright Chaotix," He said to himself as he walked away to gather his team. "we got a job to do."

…

"Shazap…"

A small enclave in a dense forest lightened up as a strange array of characters appeared out of now where through a warp ring. The forest returned to its normal hue as the warp ring shrunk to the size of a bracelet with another hushed "shazap."

The group looked on into the distance to see the abandoned Happyland Amusement Park a few hundred meters away creating a near haunting silhouette in the night. Broken roller coasters and stationary ferris wheels riddled the skyline.

"Alright. I brought us a safe enough distance outside of the park so that hopefully no one will know we're here." Knuckles spoke in a soft whisper in amongst the huddle of their formation.

"What's the deal with the quiet talk Knux?" Vector spoke in his normal, unintentionally thunderous voice. "Like you said no one should know we're here."

"Hey, did you hear that?"

The oddball investigative team froze at the words a little bit in the distance. They couldn't be found this early into the mission could they?

"Good job scales for brains!" Julie su whispered as she swung a fist into Vector's arm.

"Keep quiet." Knuckles ordered. "Espio?"

"On it." He said as his figure began to fade into thin air. Not too much later they heard the foreign voices sound off again, except they were a bit more frantic this time.

"Hey, what gives!" A 'smack' was heard. "Thomas, where'd you go?!" Then a 'thud.'

There was a short pause before, "Alright. It's clear." Espio's disembodied voice was heard not too far off. The remaining eight Chaotix moved over toward his voice and found two echidnas out cold and already tied up back-to-back propped up against a tree.

"Nice job Espy." Julie su complimented as she inspected the bounds of the two ERA scouts.

"Did you recover anything from them?" Knuckles asked.

"They had one radio on them. A lucky find if you ask me. We can listen into whatever plans may be plotted inside the amusement park. The only thing is we have to keep it on a low volume if we want to remain hidden." Espio explained.

"Good deal!" Vector stated.

"Only partly." Knuckled added. "Once these guys don't radio in or come back the others will be on high alert. We have to make this quick."

"So why are we just standing here then?" Matilda enquired.

"Right, let's get moving." Mighty backed up his sister.

With that, the group moved from the edge of the woods and into the field that lay between them and the abandoned park. They made sure they crept low, in a hunched walk, to avoid being spotted. Making sure to roll their feet to avoid excessive noise with each step, they hustled through the brush and up to a chain link fence on the leading edge of the old park. Quickly, Knuckles and Mighty grabbed the bottom of the fence and hoisted it up as the others crawled underneath it without even a moment's hesitation. The exception was Charmy and Saffron who simply buzzed over the fence and met back up with the group on the other side.

The Chaotix remained behind a boarded up game tent to lay out the rest of the game plan. "Alright, as much as I'd rather stick together, we're too big of a group to remain like that. Charmy, Saffron, since you two can fly around pretty unnoticeably I'm going to split you two up. Are you fine with that?"

"No problem Knux." Charmy answered.

"I think we can handle a little bit apart, hehe." The female bee gave her approval as well.

"Alright. Julie su, can your dread broadcast into the radio we picked up from the scouting patrol?"

"Pfsh, of course it can." She answered back confidently then proceeded to immediately tinker with her mechanical dreadlock.

"So Julie su and I will go one way, Mighty Matilda Ray and Saffron will go another and Espio Vector and Charmy will take a different route. If anything is up, Charmy and Saffron I'm expecting you to relay to the rest of us. Everyone got that?" Knuckles concluded the brief in the same hushed whisper he started it with. Everyone gave a head nod. "Cool. Mighty, you take the radio we recovered from the scouts. Julie and I will be able to listen in from our end. Vec, I trust you guys to be able to make it on your own."

"You can count on us." The crocodile gave him his reassurance.

"Great. We're looking for a cache of illegal weapons. If anyone finds it or finds info on its location, send the word out to the rest of the team. We are to sabotage the weapons. Anything else could result in detonation especially since we don't know what we're up against." Everyone was pretty intent on their team lead's words. Once Knuckles figured his words had sunk in, he gave his final statement. "Alright, good luck Chaotix. Let's move out." With that, everyone went off on in their own direction.

"I love it when you take charge." Julie su gave the red guardian a small nudge in his side.

He rebuked with a smirk. "Don't I know it."

…

"So... If I was some ERA goon, where would I hide a pile of weapons?" Vector asked hypothetically in his version of a whisper. He and Espio continued to walk through the deserted amusement park while Charmy was floating up above watching to make sure no one would pop out of a corner and discover the grounded duo.

"Vector, even in your hushed voice, you are still outrageously loud." Espio quietly explained.

"Well look here Mr. Ninja; for some, stealth doesn't come as second nature as it does with you." The large reptile rebuked.

"Just keep it down so we can get through this undiscovered."

At this time Charmy buzzed down to their level to report what he saw. "Guys! I saw some lights on the other end of the park! It looked like there might have been some activity over there. Maybe that's where the weapons cache is!"

"Outstanding. Think you can lead the way?" Espio answered.

"Sure! But I guys I should also tell you–" But the small bee's words were cut off.

"FREEZE!"

The three did just that as two ERA members were staring down at them, blinding them with spotlights.

"And that wasn't important enough to come first Charmy?" Vector mumbled to his teammate, fluttering beside him.

"Sorry."

One of the echidnas facing the trio reached down for his radio to relay the message of intruders. "Axis, this is Nightwatch 4, come in-over." He called in. At this point Vector turned to his side and didn't see Espio anywhere. He must have cloaked himself just before the two guards spotlighted them.

"Send traffic-over." The radio answered back.

"We have t–" But the guard was kicked from behind as soon as he began to speak and lost grip of his radio.

"HEY!" The other guard began to react to the invisible assault and drew his gun.

"Oh no you don't!" Vector leapt forward and tackled the guy. They wrestled down on the ground fighting for control. The guard still had the gun in his hand but Vector soon grabbed his wrist, turned it inward causing the guard to lose his grip on the weapon. Vector batted it out of his hands and it flew a good few feet away.

At this, Charmy swooped down and picked up the gun to ensure no one would gain control over the device.

Espio was still combating the initial guard. He dropped his camouflage to remain focused on the fight.

Vector was struggling with the man, grappling in a ground fight. Finally he got into a good position, tossed him over him and laid behind the echidna holding him in a choke-hold. A few seconds later, his adversary slowly stopped moving, passing out from lack of air. The crocodile got up to witness Espio give a final blow to knock out the other guard.

"We should move before these guys come to, now that that's taken care of." The chameleon began dusting off his hands.

"Bad copy Nightwatch 4. Say Again… Nightwatch 4? Come in-over." The radio was still sputtering a one way conversation, requesting for a response.

"We're not done just yet Espio." Vector moved over and picked up the radio. "This is Nightwatch 4, we hear you."

"What the hell happened Nightwatch 4?"

"Umm, sorry… I tripped and dropped the radio." He quickly thought up to justify the gap in communication from their end.

"Whatever. You radioed in and were about to say something? Say that again – over."

Vector shifted his eyes over to Espio unsure of where to go with this. "Umm, yeah. We found these crates of Twinkies. Do you think we should bring them back? They never go bad you know….Over" The soft smack of Espio's facepalm was heard in the background. It was the first thing Vector thought of.

There was a small pause as the other end of the radio tried took in the outlandish statement. "…What? Just shut up and get back here. The Boss needs help moving the weapons onto the train to have them shipped out."

Vector and Espio's eyes grew at the new information they turned to face each other to reassure they each heard it then focused back on the radio. "Ro-roger. We'll be right over. Nightwatch 4-out."

…

Knuckles and Julie su were hunkered down behind these old busted up crates. Knuckles was keeping an eye out for any wanderers as Julie su was listening in to her dreadlock, hearing everything being sent over the radios between Vector and the main command. "I swear one of these days that buffoon's luck is going to run out." She rolled her eyes.

"At least we know some more information. We have to get to that weapons cache and soon!" The team lead exclaimed.

"And all of us have ears on the enemy as well. Guys that's a good thing."

"Damn right it is. Come on, let's get moving." They dispersed from their position and began moving quickly through the dark alleyways between the moldy fabric tents and boarded up shops. Swiftly moving down the paths but stopping immediately at each end to peek around the corners for any stray patrols. Once the coast was clear, they'd quickly cross to the other side and begin their movements again.

They got past a few of the shops and into the underneath of a broken down roller coaster. They hopped the fence and began moving swiftly through the open area; a much quicker more direct route than going around the roller coaster. About halfway through, they heard a few voices off in the distance. Or at least Knuckles did.

Julie su was about to keep running but her red partner quickly put a stop to that as he grabbed her shoulders and accidentally threw her back a little harder than expected and the two fell into a nearby bush, good concealment until the patrols were past and out of their view.

"Hey, did you hear that?" One of the patrolling guards called out as he flashed a few bushes just to the left of the ones where Knuckles and Julie su were staying quietly hidden.

"Dude, I hear a lot of shit out here. Especially by these old busted rides." The other dismissed his buddy's warning. "Probably just an animal or something." He took a seat on a large boulder and pulled out a small snack bar from one of his pockets, unwrapped it and began munching down.

"This really isn't the place to for a snack break you know."

'Great.' Knuckles thought as he and Julie su still were remaining motionless in this bush. 'They're going to be here for a while aren't they?'

"Why not? No one is around to chew us out and I'm hungry. We can take a little break." He took another bite of the bar, causing a loud crunch.

"Because we have a job to do. They said Nightwatch 2 hasn't called in so we need to see what's up."

"Oh stop being so responsible. They're fine! Besides they're all the way by the outer border."

"Exactly!" The more attentive soldier was arguing back. "So if they haven't radioed in, what makes us so sure no one hasn't infiltrated the park?"

The guard sitting down slowly got up as he crumbled up the wrapper of his consumed snack bar and threw it on the ground. "Uhhhgggg. Fine. Can't sit down for one minute in this job." The two began to walk away.

"Hey, you're the one that signed up for it."

A few moments later and their voices were drowned out. The two hidden Chaotix crawled out of the bush to still keep their noise level at a minimum. Julie su shook out one of her arms and stretched her back from being held motionless in an uncomfortable position for so long but sometimes that's what it calls for.

"We've got to make up for lost time AND high tail it over there now. It won't be long before they discover both the patrol teams we took out." Knuckles commanded and the two were off again.

…

"I wonder how Knux and Su are fairing." Mighty said in general conversation as his group was taking a much more leisured pace through the park than their counterparts.

"Well we know how Vector Espio and Charmy are doing." Matilda said a bit sarcastically as they too heard over their captured radio Vector's impersonation.

"W-well they g-got out though." Ray answered back, always being the optimist.

"And thank goodness too! That worried me." Saffron called up.

"Let's stay focused here. They got out and that's all said and done. We need to get to those weapons." Mighty took back command.

"I agree. Besides, I think we're getting close." The other armadillo stated her observation.

"And what makes you say that?" The bee floating above them buzzed.

"I know how groups like these guys work." As she made her statement, they came across a collapsed closed down shop and peaked above the rubble to see a large assembly of ERA soldiers. They were all standing around an obscure shaped object with a tarp flapping lightly in the wind covering whatever the contents of the large object was.

"I th-think we f-found it."

"I think you're right Ray." Mighty agreed. They continued to observe the area and saw a large crane hovering over the covered object which they suspected to be their objective. A train car was position closely to it. "I don't want to make a charge until we have the rest of The Chaotix with us. Besides that, we are terribly out numbered." Mighty explained.

Just then, there was a lot of commotion coming from the other side of the gaggle of enemies they were spying on. "We have intruders!" These two echidnas shouted as they entered the scene. The crowd began to get eccentric and speak among themselves. "We just found Nightwatch 4 passed out and thrown into an abandoned tent!" The two shouted.

Another two just entered the area and began shout out too. "Nightwatch 2 was tied up at the outer border too!"

Immediately, the echidnas began grabbing and chambering their guns. It was hard to tell how they were organized but one thing was for sure was who the higher ups were as they had a red band across their arm and were pointing their fingers frivolously ordering around small fireteams; some ran out to go investigate the rest of the amusement park and some stayed for security forces.

"Do you need me to try and find the others?" Saffron offered.

"Yes! Be careful though. I have a feeling they won't be too kind to anyone they find." He advised. Saffron nodded and flew off.

She maneuvered around the debris and junk that littered the abandoned amusement park, taking extra caution seeing as they were not on high alert. It was not long before she came up on Knuckles and Julie su, waiting not too far off of a different part of the surrounding area that Mighty Matilda and Ray were spying on, and told them what the rest of her team found out.

"Great job Saffron. Go and find Vector Espio and Charmy. Guide them to the area and have them take cover. We'll wait a little longer for the fireteams that went out to search for us to get some more distance so we can worry about as few numbers as possible. Once we get eyes on each other, everyone will wait for my signal then we'll move in."

Saffron nodded her head in compliance. "Understood Knuckles!" She then flew off to continue on her mission.

A few minutes later, she rejoined her own team. "Look out for the other groups waiting around like we are. Knuckles is going to give us the signal to charge." She concluded playing messenger for the time being.

"Ok, I think I see them." Mighty said as a small flash of light kept flickering over his eyes. He gave a subtle thumbs up to acknowledge the fact he knew their position. Once he did, he could vaguely see Julie su holding something, most likely a mirror to divert some light to grab their attention, as she moved it to her otherside. He deduced that this was to signal Vector and his group.

His eyes did not waiver from Knuckles and Julie su's position as he waited anxiously for their signal to move in. And finally, he saw a hand pivot down toward their objective. The three groups jumped up and charged.

Their surprise attack took the enemy off guard as the few seconds it took them to react was enough for The Chaotix to be right on the outer line. Knuckles, Mighty, Vector and Matilda continued to slug the ERA right and left. The sounds of shouts, jabs and smacks, and chambers racking from the ERA with guns filled the air.

"Why aren't you twits firing!" One of the higher ups shouted toward the ERA behind the initial front line.

"We can't get a clear shot without possible friendly fire on our own guys!" They responded.

Charmy Ray and Saffron was flying around in the air, dodging and drawing fire being directed toward them. Every once in a while they would swoop down and either kick the guns out of some of their hands or land a heavy hit from the aerial attack. Julie su had her gun on a taser mode and shot rapidly, stunning each opponent while Espio was using his gear to stun and daze his combatants as well. It was an all out brawl.

Enemy after enemy, they seemed to just keep coming. The riflemen of the ERA tried effortlessly to find a clear shot but the hand-to-hand combat of their men on the front line with The Chaotix was too hectic to ensure a clear shot. So they sat and waited for an opportunity, finding only a few every minute or so which they missed every time. Every once in a while some of the soldier foes would land a strong hit on Knuckles and his crew but they have been through enough that it didn't faze them too much.

"Grrr. We can't just keep fighting forever!" Julie su shouted as she was getting both tired and anxious from shooting, landing a few punches, rolling to dodge some gunfire, and then repeating the process.

"We need to get to that weapons cache!" Vector gave his observation.

Mighty looked up and saw the large stack being guarded by a good few members of the ERA. Not only that, other henchmen were frivolously at work to load up the weapons onto the train for extraction. "We're running out of time guys!"

"I'm on it!" The voice of a familiar chameleon arose from an unseen source. He bolted toward the crane operations and flung himself up. He latched onto a bar, swung a few times to gain momentum and then leaped to a higher platform. Still invisible he ran down the length of the platform, overturning any sharpshooters that were posted there. He made it to the edge where he leaped to the end of the crane about to pick up the large heap of weapons. Quickly, he withdrew a knife and started sawing away at the cord.

The rest of the crew down below was still slowly making their way to their objective. Frantically spinning, fighting, evading, they were able to keep themselves moving forward with so far no injuries.

"Julie watch out!" Knuckles shouted as he dove and tackled his partner just after spotting one of the riflemen of the ERA taking aim at her. The two slammed the ground just in time to avoid the shot.

Of course they still watched each other's backs to avoid such injuries.

After some effort, Espio was able to cut the cable that attached the end of the crane to the rest of the structure. It began falling and he gallantly leapt, spinning backward, to get clear of the destruction. He shot out his tongue and latched onto a piece of the rafters of the area and pulled himself to safety. Once there, he continued to swiftly move down to rejoin the fight.

As the end of the crane came crashing down, many of the ERA still in the area, waiting for their turn to join the fight, dispersed to avoid death by falling debris. This opened up a path right to the weapons cache. Julie su and Matilda were the ones that got their first. They flipped over the tarp and saw six large missiles with diameter larger than the size of their heads.

"Su! Matilda! We'll keep these goons occupied while you work with the weapons!" Knuckles shouted at the two mechanized females ogling the large missiles. He then redirected his commands to their aerial troupe. "Saffron Charmy Ray! Take out anyone dumb enough to shoot at Julie su and Matilda! We don't need us all to go down in a catastrophic explosion." The three flyboys (and flygirl) zoomed off to follow their orders.

"Holy shit I recognize these things!" Julie su shouted as she continued to examine the missiles.

"Same here." Matilda answered in her normal unenthused tone.

"MR-11 IRB Missiles!" They stated, forgetting they both can be traced back to the Legion where the missiles originated from.

"They must have either had these in their possession since the fall of the Eggman Empire or the Black Market is still strong with its remnants." Julie su explained.

"The easiest way to neutralize these things is to take out the guidance and control interface. It's located at the joint of the navigation system and the firing sequence pretty much rendering them useless." The armadillo continued to explain.

"Couldn't say it better myself girl. Let's get to work!" The two hopped around working their way to from the top to the bottom. They used their mechanized limbs to bust through the steel casing near the avionics of the missiles. They quickly looked in and found the small box they were looking for and ripped them out.

"Got one down!" Julie su shouted as Matilda held up a box that looked identical to the one in the pink echidna's hands.

"Make it two." She shouted.

"Julie su, what's the scoop?" Knuckles shouted out to her as he was finishing busting up another foe. He took a quick dodge to the right to avoid a hook, ducked under his opponent's arms and swung his leg back to trip him up. As he was falling Knuckles slammed his elbow into the back of his adversary's head knocking him out. Immediately after, a rifleman too close to use his gun for its intended purpose, thrust the butt of his gun in the red echidna's direction. But his large gloves were able to catch the gun with hardly any impact pain. He gripped it and threw it back bringing his challenger forward to meet his other glove with a punch to the face.

"Give us a few minutes. We'll have these things turned into a worthless antique in no time." Julie su answered.

The two females were frantically at work taking out the missiles. 'Three' and one would move on to the next missile. 'Four' and the other would move on.

"I got my last one. Matilda?" It was getting hard for Julie su to carry the three bulky pieces but she managed. They would have to move quickly seeing as it would be hard to keep a grip on the small boxes they were handling.

"Got it!" The green armadillo shouted in response.

"Knuckles!" Was all the guardian's partner had to shout before he was ready to go.

He reached in his glove and pulled out a warp ring, flicked it and tossed it into the air. "Chaotix! Let's move out!" And immediately Vector, Mighty and Espio leaped into the portal disappearing onto the other side. Next was Charmy Saffron and Ray as they buzzed in.

"Let's go!" Knuckles then jumped into the ring and vanished with another 'shazap!'

Matilda dashed to the ring and made it in with all of her obtained missile components. It only left Julie su. She ran toward it. It was starting to close. She picked up her pace but her foot snagged on a piece of stray debris that was littering the area. In her fall, her three interfaces that she took from the missiles left her grip and scattered on the ground. She quickly looked up and saw two right in front of her. She grabbed them and tossed them into the warp ring. But where was the last one? Her head was twitching in all directions to try and find it.

And as if she didn't need any more distractions, a gunshot was heard followed by the whiz of the bullet zooming by her dreadlocks. A quick second perspective was gained as the ERA was closing in on her. She looked up at the warp ring getting smaller and smaller. "Skrew it!" She shouted as she ran toward the ring. As she got closer, she saw the last interface lying on the other side of the ring. Letting her reflexes take control, she slid down on the ground right underneath the hovering gold portal. She grabbed the box and leapt into the warp ring just as it closed. Mission complete.